We fell under the spell of Valpariaso. All four of us. After 5 days spent exploring the winding alleys of the Cerros Allegre and Concepcion, watching the busy port and visiting the small towns and beaches to the north and the south, wandering through museums and artisan shops and feeling the history around us we were smitten. How quickly we forgot that the old buildings were worse for wear, that we are not really "city" people and that our Spanish learned from travels in Mexico and Central America does not for some reason seem to help us understand much in Chilean Spanish. Was it our perch on Cerro Allegre where we stayed with a painter who taught classes in the dining room and sold paintings from the garage and from where we watched the lights of the city appear each night and reflect the sky filled with stars? Was it observing the historic port where ships bound for Rapa Nui (Easter Island) mingled with ships readying for or fresh from rounding the horn and an occasional cruise ship bound for Anarctica while the Chilean navy stood guard? Was it visiting Pablo Neruda's "house in the sky"? Or was it the seemingly irrepressible artistic urge, a gallery behind every garage, a mural on every wall and graffitti literally everywhere? Or maybe it was the acensors, ancient lifts that carry you up the 14 mountainsides that make up the city, each one unique in it's design? No, I think what really sealed the deal was the dinner at J Cruz Verde. A little back alley restaurant that looked as dubious as you could imagine but upon entry was the most amazing hodge podge of visual imagary and Chilean hospitality where we were serenaded by the owner and his guitar while we feasted on the beef pobre---ooh la la!----and got to add our own graffitti to that covering the walls and the tables. That was the meal when we felt we had become part of the place and it a part of us as we all agreed we love this city because it has so much character. Gritty and real, old and wonderful there is nowhere else in the world you could imagine to be quite like Valpariaso!
